A Dayin the Life of Me.....

I wrote this quite awhile ago, and since then a lot has happened. Many of you have heard that Stella went to be with Jesus Nov 11… this blog is about the day before that and I thought you would still want to know about it…

In a response to the massive need to catch my blog up on life, my goal is to write at least 5 separate blogs… you don’t have to read them all at the same time :P… that is once I actually write them.

To start out, a few days ago I had a crazy busy and memorable day that a bunch of people asked about on facebook… so...

5am- I woke up, spent time in the Word, was amazed that we had power all night and that for once it was useful at 5am J I drank fake (aka instant) coffee and found out we were getting picked up at 6 instead of 5:30 because there is still a curfew on the city after the riots a year ago.

6am- Left for the hospital where we got to see Stella. She was released on bail and because of a Dr’s letter explaining the gravity of her illness and the fact that she only has 1-2 months to live. We had a sweet time joking with her, asking if she’s excited to see her children, making sure we know all the words to a song she taught us, ect. The whole time, the court appointed shirtee(that’s probably spelled wrong…), whose job it is to get all the signatures and prove to the court that everything was done for her case, was flirting with my neighbor Karis. Here is a sample of our conversation while she was out of the room.

Him: Did you see my wife? She is very beautiful!

Me: yes she is, but I hear you have a lot of work to do before she is your wife.

Him: Ah yes, I told her I will send her father 500 cows.

Me: What if he says no?
Him: O! then I will follow him with love saying “daddy, give to me this one”.

Me: Her father is a very big man!

Him: So am I!

Me: He is very tall.

Lisa: He is an angry man. (not true, by the way…)

Me: He is a farmer, so you will have to work for her seven years- its biblical.

Him: Ah! But I cannot do that!

Lisa: And then you may get the wrong sister.

Him: Oh I will look very carefully to make sure I get my beautiful wife. Besides, that was before Christ, we don’t have to do this anymore.

…Karis later said: So you’re saying women were more valuable before Christ?

… end of the story, he was really annoying.

In the middle of this all the doctor came with the results of all of Stella’s tests and they had to tell her she is DOUBLE dying. Cervical cancer that is inoperable plus the stigma of HIV.

Then we found out we needed to go to the police station to get the personal belongings they took when she first went to prison.

7 am- We squeeze 7 people into a stationwagon with Karis in the boot. Mr. Shirtee says to me “why do you put my wife in the boot? You go!” We then explain that a real gentleman would take her place, but he continued to tell ME to sit in the back instead and eventually just let her stay there.

While Stell, Mr. Shirtee and Patience(another recently released prisoner) go into the station we talk about all the crazy culturalness going on and see more big guns than I’ve seen in my entire life.

8am- We have to leave the station (where they are still waiting for her stuff… Mr. S says “my white wife is in the car, she is even more beautiful than these two!”) Drop kids off at school, take Lisa home, and go back to the hospital to try to pay the bill.

9am- I get dropped at the Zoo, when I’m met by 16 boys, 3 Nigerian adults, 7 Danish, and 1 English girl. We have a blast taking pictures of the boys and seeing the lions, chimps, cheetah, camel, snakes, ostrich, peacock, random birds, 5 kinds of monkey, doves, and alligators.

11am- We start walking home from the Zoo with the boys. At one crossing point is my FAVORITE traffic director. Some people call them “yellow fever guys” because of their bright vests. This one loves his job and dances the entire time. I stupidly forgot that it is probably a really bad place to take a picture and called attention to our already attention gaining group. Three minutes down the road we were chased down by some form of National Security and had a heated discussion for 20 minutes about how it isn’t a safe area to walk in, that we don’t know the place well, if anything happened it would be blamed on the country, we were putting the kids in danger and if we had told them white people were walking there they would have sent us security guards… the whole time I was thinking—so now I can’ walk because I’m white? I walk every day!

12- We finally arrived back to Gidan Bege, with five Nigerians from Security in tow to talk to Uncle Joseph. Soon after they were calmed down the boys started a program to say goodbye to the Danish group. EVERYONE was crying and it made me think about how I will be leaving soon…

Then I was picked up for a craft meeting where we talked about what we could sell to help the ministry be more self sustaining as well as holistic. We want to train the kids (especially the older ones) so that they can support themselves through a skill once they leave the ministry.

4pm- I got home and found our new compound pig got loose and helped chase it around for 20 minutes until it gave up and just sat down in the mud. The pig was originally a “gift” hidden in Lisa’s bathroom when she came home from England last week. We plan to roast it!

The rest is a blur… eating dinner at Heather’s, talking to Josh and Tricia and my parents on skype… and that’s a day in the life of me.

Things I have learned....

Today I was thinking about how many ridiculous small things God has used while I’ve been here. I made a list of things I wanted to learn before I came to Africa that I thought would be helpful. I didn’t end up learning any of them over the summer, but God’s preparation was better than mine. No phases in our lives are wasted, and anything we learn along the way can be used by Him. And it is ridiculously practical! Here are a few silly things I’ve learned that have been used here and the people who taught me.

*Today I made Origami frogs with the boys and they loved it! My brother used to make them out of the Church Bulletin…

*Tuesday we started to learn to books of the New Testament with a song Jason Potampa sang every week in Sunday School when I was a Freshman in High School. (I also survived my first week of Greek because of Jason, but that’s another story)

*In school we sang a song I learned in 5th grade from Mrs. Graves about the continents. Before that, the boys couldn’t point out where Africa was on a world map.

*A TON of things I learned as a SALT leader last year apply to the outreaches we are doing in the brothels.

*Hospitality is incredibly important to Nigerians, and it was a goal of my roommate Hannah and I last year.

*I would not survive here without things I learned about cooking- From my grandma and my mom and from way back when I did 4h. The fact that I have to make everything from scratch is growing my skills by leaps and bounds. We usually all eat together several times a week so cooking for lots of people helps too.

*I have taught the boys a lot, and use things I learned in CEF every time.

*We’ve been brainstorming about how to use crafts to help support the ministry and my mom’s craft skills, plus my family’s history in retail has been really helpful.

*Having an exchange student for a year makes the international community here make a lot more sense to me.

*Mayamba taught me African time !

*I have used every imaginable clapping game, thumb wars, ect.

*There is a swing dance move that I taught to the boys as the “kick kick” game… Thanks Trish, I have it on video for you whenever it happens to upload…

*All the songs from back in the days of The Genesis 1:1 band I was in have come out at some point.

*At least once a week I quote something I learned about God and my relationship to him that is a direct quote from Mary Hynes because we would process so much together over the last 2 years. Other people I quote occasionally include Kathryn Manitsas, Angela Burril, Mark Driscoll (haha.. a lot), Professors, Angela Fritz, Sarah Clews, Tricia Breiter, Karen Choto, Josh…

*The last year I was in dance we did an “African” dance that actually helped me know how to dance right here. Someday I’ll really be able to dance!

*How to change a tire- from Dad in theory and Natalie Reister in practice.

*How to strike up a conversation with anyone- My Grandma RaeEllen

*How to tell creepy guys who try to follow me home to go away- Josh telling me that its ok to be rude if they’re being creepy.

*Not being shocked by much- my parents took me to all sorts of places when I was little. I realized after visiting skid row last spring break that places some people think are way too sketchy just register as “pay attention and it will be ok because God is with you” to me.

*How to squish as many people in a car as possible is a daily occurrence in taxis. They sit 3 in the front and 4 in the back. I learned this in High school giving people rides to Young Life.

*How to take a compliment- from Josh. How to give compliments Tricia and Angela.

*Remembering names and faces because of all the camps, trainings, ect that I went to.

*How to Pee on the side of the road/ Squatty potty… Hannah Pugh has some great theories.


Anyway, the point is that anything is useful in ministry. You never know...